Thursday, February 25, 2010

Filched Descartes Letter Returned

Well, the New York Times might not have been able to resist the pull of the punny headline, but I can. An important 1641 Descartes letter, stolen from the Institut de France in the mid-19th century, will be returned after it was discovered in the collections of Haverford College. The story of the original thefts, by Guglielmo Libri, is a fascinating one, and I hope to have more to say about it shortly.